Chewing Everything

[Firsttimer]

Hi I’m new to this website but how grateful I am to have found it.  I got my first rabbit Pepper last week and she is a house rabbit.  She is five months old and is currently living in a large cage and is let loose in our spacious hallway while I am home.  I want to let her roam the rest of the house so that she can socialise with everyone but she seems to chew absolutely everything!  I have laminate flooring which she slides all over, but no matter what I put on the ground to stop her sliding she chews it up.  I worry about the amount of plastic and rubber she munches through.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Also, how can I protect the wooden feet on my sofas without making them look ugly?   She is a very nervous rabbit but I am remaining patient and letting her get used to me being around before i let her roam further.

[Sarita]

Congratulations on Pepper!  Rabbits do need to chew.  You might try some grass mats to put on the floor – this will help with traction and is safe to chew.

The best thing to do if she is chewing something she shouldn’t is to divert her to something that is okay like a toilet roll or a chew toy that you have bought specifically for her for that purpose.  Untreated willow toys are great too.  Check the bunny shop on this website for some great chew toys.  Also you might want to put some hay out somewhere for her to chew on – maybe put some in the paper towell roll, that’s always fun for rabbits and a safe diversion.

You will need to rabbit-proof your home though if you want to give her the freedom of the house eventually.  It is good that you are starting out slowly as far as introducing her.

I know others will have lots of good ideas too.

Sarita

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

Sarita made really good suggestions. Are you thinking about getting her spayed? That could help too.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Welcome to our board, I’m glad you found us too!

Oh the excitement of a new bunny! I know it is really hard to not let them have all the freedom in the world when you bring them home, however it is best to start small so the develop and learn good House Rabbit etiquette i.e. using the litterbox and not chewing on furniture. Offering an OK chew is fantastic but even then, they will still be tempted by that succulent furniture leg or floorboard. Not wanting things to look like a bunny has really taken over your house can be a challenge. For the legs of furniture you can try a repellent like BB has in her section on Rabbit Proofing your home. Some of them include perfume and lemon oil. Other things that are done is wrapping the leg in cardboard or you might even want to try coroplast. As for couches I’ve seen skirts of wood placed around the bottom as well as the legs just taken off as well. Something else I have done is use some plexi-glass and wedge them around the legs too.

Spaying will definately help with hormones when she hits puberty as soon as 3 months old as well as litterbox habits and your enjoyment of her for a longer time than if she were not. There is a high uterine cancer risk without it, as high as 80%.

So please tell us more, what are you feeding your bun, what kind of litter are you using? The injestion of non-digestable material is not good at all. Have you tried a tarp with a sheet over it?

[Firsttimer]

Hi, Thanks everone for your suggestions.  At the moment she is getting a constant supply of hay and she has a numerous choice of chew toys which she shows no interest in.  This week she cottoned onto peeing in the litter tray and I hope when I do get her spayed she will drop her pellets there too.  Will spaying her affect her chewing habits?  She has started digging furiously but doesn’t dig in her litter tray which is great.  I use dust extracted wood pellets for her litter tray which I am assured by the pet shop is safe for her.

[Sarita]

There is no guarantee that spaying will change all of her "bad" habits.  She is a young bunny and is very active so some behavior is age related.  As for litter box training – yes this should help with that eventually.  As for digging, well some rabbits are diggers, it’s there thing, you just need to find something for her to dig like an old phonebook – it’s messy but it’s safe.  Your so lucky she doesn’t dig in her litterbox too

[Scarlet_Rose]

You’re welcome and it sounds great and Sarita has given you some wonderful insight too! If she does eventually dig in the litterbox there are a few things you can use like hardware cloth, some type of wire grid, even a cooling rack you use for the kitchen.

[MooBunnay]

Two toys that seem to particularly fascinate my chewing bunny are cardboard, and grass balls (sold here as well as many other rabbit toy sites). He does not really care for the wood blocks or other pet store chew toys. He realllly like the grass mats, and grass balls. For cardboard, just throw a spare box in his area, and I bet he will start to remodel it RIGHT away. He also enjoys willow wood. If you just have chew toys like the wood block types, try a few of these other types, and try the cheapest (cardboard) first because it also is usually the most successful, and can also be used to protect things you don’t want chewed.

[Firsttimer]

Pepper is settling in really well now and seems to be managing to make her way around the laminate flooring now.  I’ve bought the grass matts which she loves but they can be a hazard on the flooring because if she jumps on them she skids with them along the corridor.  She seems happy enough though and has now become a devious escape artist and exploring lots.

192918775771.JPG

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

What is that little toy she has? A super fancy grass mat??

[Firsttimer]

It’s a vegetable patch. It’s a grass base with grass carrots that Pepper is supposed to pull out and chew, you can buy replacement carrots, but Pepper prefers to chew the base!

[MooBunnay]

wow! That IS a good lookin toy there! Where did you get that from? I think my chewing bunny would love that, though it might need carrot replacements every day

[Gravehearted]

oo glad she’s settling in – that carrot patch mat is fantastic!!

[Firsttimer]

I got it in Scotland in a shop called ‘Pets at Home’.  They have a website:

http://www.petsathome.com/

 

[Scarlet_Rose]

Too cool! I love that carrot chew mat. Some bunnies actually love "sledding" on mats or even a piece of newspaper. I’m surprised she does not wait for you to put the mat back so she can do it again.

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

lorna – I see that the website has chipmunk supplies on it! Are they common pets in Scotland? I’ve never heard of having a chipmunk as a pet!

[Firsttimer]

Yes I saw that. But I’ve never heard of anyone having one as a pet.

[Author]

Messages